Mid-Century Makeover

A little over a month ago I started working on refinishing two mid-century dressers for personal use.  I recently sold all of my bedroom furniture during my move from Atlanta to Winter Haven.  When these were offered to me I jumped at the chance to get them.  On the downside they had been sitting on a semi-enclosed porch for the last twelve years or so and had some condition and odor issues.  What was particularly entertaining to me is that they before the home that I obtained them from they had belonged to the woman from whom I obtained my last set of bedroom furniture that I refinished.

Sadly the dressers don't have any manufacturer markings of any kind so I've been unable to determine their exact age.

I took this picture on day one just after I had begun work.  The dressers had a light almost white finish that in some places was almost eaten away by weather and wear.  It looked like sanding would be pretty easy and overall it was until day four or five when my handy little Mouse sander died.  Luckily I borrowed a similar but much more powerful sander and I was back in business.

I took this picture at the end of day six.  At this point I only had the bottom drawer and the other, unseen side to sand.  This is the last picture I've taken to date.  I completed sanding the day after this picture, or so I thought.  I decided not to stain but only to clear coat to let the natural color show.  As I began staining several places showed where there were still bits of white deeper in the veneer.  That was two weeks ago.  Yesterday I sealed inside all of the drawers and my plan for today is to try to finish resanding the fronts of the drawers and maybe sealing them.  All this work and I still have another dresser to go when this one's finished.  The end product will be well worth it.